Shingeki no Kushu
by Sinafaya
Summary: Eren Jeager has lived a relatively normal life until he went on a seemingly innocent date with a pretty girl. Well that encounter left him on the brink of death which awakened something inside of him. He was human, at least he thought he had been. He was sure his life couldn't get any more screwed up, that is, until he starts developing feelings for a certain investigator.
1. Chapter 1

_Beep Beep Beep_

Literally for the twentieth time that morning, Eren hit the snooze button on his damn alarm clock. He hated a lot of things but not as much as mornings and alarm clocks. At least it was a Friday. _Only a few more hours of class, and then you're free, _he thought to himself.

He had stayed up all night finishing his homework for University and he was tired as hell. He laid in his bed, eyes closed, and enjoyed the warmth of his blankets. It was December now and the fact that Mikasa rarely turned the heat on made the apartment they were living in absolutely freezing. Hell, Eren bet that if he left a bowl of ice cream out on the counter all night it would be perfectly fine in the morning. That made it much more difficult for him to groggily shove of his covers and place his feet on the cold, laminate flooring. Ruffling his awful bed head, he yawned and glanced at the clock, which was currently making that annoying beeping sound again.

It read _6:45 AM_

"Shit…" Most mornings his sister, Mikasa, would wake him up, usually by shoving his lazy ass off the bed, but wake him up no less. Swim season started a few weeks earlier though, so Mikasa was up and out of the apartment by 5 AM and that meant Eren had to get his own lazy ass out of bed. By now he was running 45 minutes late and so Eren quickly grabbed the first pair of pants and shirt he found in the dryer, thankful that he had remembered to actually do laundry last night. He slipped on his clothes and made his way to the bathroom where he tried to tame the massive beast called his hair. After five minutes he gave up and decided to deal with it, it's not like he has a date or anything.

"Shit…" Eren muttered for the second time that morning. He did have a date. He was supposed to meet this girl at the arcade tonight and he almost forgot. How would someone forget something like that one might ask? Eren had no fucking clue. Quickly, he jotted down a note telling Mikasa that he was going to be late coming home and went to place it on the kitchen counter. There, he found that Mikasa had actually left him a note as well:

_Remember I'm leaving early today for practice. I'll see you at school. Don't forget to eat breakfast and grab your homework. I won't be able to run home for you if you forget -Mikasa _

Eren smiled at the note. Mikasa had always looked out for him, ever since she was adopted into the family. A few years ago, Mikasa's parents were murdered by a band of ghouls and Eren's father, who works for the CCG as an experimental doctor, adopted her into the family (The CCG is a company of investigators that is designed to hunt and investigate ghouls, monstrous but human-like creatures that live off the flesh of humans). Because of his job, Grisha Jeager is never home and usually spends his nights at the office. As for his mother, Eren doesn't know much about what happened to her. Eren's father told him that a ghoul had killed her right after he was born, but he never went into any detail. All he knew was that she was a really beautiful woman, according to the picture of her and Grisha in the living area, and that Eren had inherited her striking blue-green eyes and brown hair.

Eren shook his head. These depressing thoughts would seek to only worsen his mood. He grabbed his wallet and keys off the counter and shouldered his book bag. He glanced at the clock on his phone and it read a few minutes after 7. Like magic, his phone buzzed at that exact moment. It was a text from his best friend, Armin:

_Eren! Where are you?_

_I overslept. I'll be there in a few, _Eren replied.

Every morning, he, Armin, and Mikasa meet up at a local coffee shop named Café Maria that was close to their University campus for breakfast, though for the past few weeks it was only him and Armin because of Mikasa's swim practice.

Eren pocketed his phone and hastily moved out the door of the apartment, making sure to lock it securely behind him, and stepped into the elevator. After a quiet ride down, he exited the lobby and strode over to the bike rack in front of the building. It took him a few minutes because of the cold to unchain his bike from the rack. Once he did though, he swiftly hopped onto his bike and began the trek to the café. It began snowing and Eren regrettably realized that he had left his hat and gloves in the apartment. At least he had his coat so he wouldn't freeze to death, not completely anyways. It was about a ten minute ride to the café, but Eren made it there in less than that. On the way there though he did accidentally run over a couple of businessmen, who presumably spewed off a few choice curse words but Eren hardly heard them.

Eren chained his bike in front of the coffee shop and scurried inside, all the while breathing into his hands to thaw them out. Once he went inside, the warmth of Café Maria hit him like a breath of fresh air. He has always loved coffee but to his best friend's disappointment, he can only take it black. Eren hated the idea of milk and sugar in his coffee. It completely grossed him out.

Armin, as perky as ever, bounded up to him with a smile and a half-eaten bagel in his mouth, "I made sure to get you one, don't worry," he said nearly jumping up and down as he handed Eren and cinnamon-raison bagel and a black coffee.

Eren gawked at the amount of energy the kid had this early in the morning. It absolutely astonished him that anyone can be anywhere near delightful before 10 AM. "Thanks", Eren said as he and Armin took a seat in one of the booths. Eren sipped at his coffee and munched on his bagel along with Armin as they chatted.

In the café, as usual, the two baristas, Ymir and Krista, were busily working on making the coffee and pastries, and the busboy (Marco?) was wiping off one of the tables. What he hadn't noticed before when he had walked in was that the café had taken on a new employee, who was now working the register. Eren nearly choked on his coffee when he saw it was none other than Jean Kirschtein, an arrogant, horse-faced bastard who happened to share some of the same classes as Eren at University. They were constantly getting into fights, many of which end with Mikasa breaking the two of them up, and leaving one or both of them with a broken nose or black eye.

Eren rolled his eyes. Jean just had to invade one of Eren's favourite places now didn't he. It was then that Eren realized that Armin was tugging on his jacket, trying to get his attention.

Armin motioned to the TV that the café had hanging in the corner of the room. The local news station was on and the caster was giving a report on a recent ghoul attack. Usually, this area of the city was a somewhat peaceful area but recently there have been more and more murders. Like last night. This time it was a male named Mylius Zeramuski who was killed. Strange, the name seemed familiar.

Eren turned to Armin, whose expression was stricken with dread, "Armin, are you okay?"

Armin gulped, "Mylius... He's a member of the Journalism Club. We were supposed to be partners on an upcoming project… I can't believe he's dead…"

Eren reached out to his friend's hand, "I'm sorry…" Honestly he had no idea what else he could say. He never really knew Mylius but he felt the loss for Armin.

Armin shook his head, "I'm fine." He chugged down the last of his coffee and stood up. "I'm going to run to the restroom, I'll be right back," he said with a small, forced smile.

Eren nodded his head and watched his friend walk to the other side of the café to where the bathrooms were located. He would have gone after him to make sure he was okay but Eren knew there was nothing he could do. He'd never been all that great at consoling people. After Armin left, the sadness Eren felt began to mold in anger, pure, unadulterated anger. It really pissed him off that these ghouls could mercilessly take a life like that. And it pissed him off even more that they are continuing to hurt the people around him. This merely strengthened Eren's resolve to join the CCG and become an investigator once he graduated from University. He wanted to keep things like this from ever happening again; too many people have had their lives completely stripped away. He wanted so badly to rid this world of ghouls.

He stood up from the table, still a little lost in thought. As he was making his way to the trashcan to throw away his empty coffee cup, he collided head first into another customer. Unfortunately, the man Eren had bumped into was carrying a full cup of steaming hot coffee that was now soaking into the man's white, and very expensive-looking, coat. "ahhh fuck…" Eren groaned.

"Oi, watch it kid."

Eren looked up, or rather down, at the man he just ran into and went a little bit on the defensive at the man's assertiveness, "Sorry, it was an accident." Normally Eren would have gone off on the guy, especially in his current mood, except that something about the look in the stranger's eyes told him that that probably wasn't the smartest of ideas. What really caught Eren's attention though was that fact that he was stunning; with raven-black hair and deep-set, blue-grey eyes, which were now stone cold and hardly welcoming. His expression was also a blank slate, that didn't give anyway any hint to what he was feeling.

Trailing behind the raven-haired guy was a taller and stockier built one, who was wearing the same type of formal(ish?) coat as the shorter man, a little odd considering the casual atmosphere of the coffee shop. The taller one was handsome as well, but those eyebrows, damn they were weird, like, who has eyebrows that thick?

A voice broke Eren out of his trance, "Are you going to quit gawking or go get us a few napkins? You've made a mess all over me and the floor."

Eren shook his head quickly went to the counter to ask for some, making sure to avoid any form of eye contact with Kirschtein. What was with him today? Blindly following someone's order like that… Yes, it was technically his fault but it still kind of pissed him off… In any case he got the napkins he needed and went back to mop of the small puddle of coffee on the tile flooring. By the time he finished cleaning it up, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was the taller of the two, the one with the weird eyebrows.

"Sorry about him, he could be a little brash sometimes." With that, the blond left Eren to join his colleague at one of the tables.

Eren took a seat back at the booth him and Armin had occupied. Speaking of, where the hell was he? Eren was about to get back up to search for his friend when the little blond tapped him on the shoulder.

Ready to go?" Armin asked.

Eren could see that his friend was still a bit worked up, "You okay, man?"

Armin nodded his head, "I'll be fine. Anyways we should probably start heading to class. It starts in ten minutes"

Eren grabbed his book bag and hoisted it over his shoulder. As they made their way to class, Armin spoke up, "After class, do you want to meet up and work on some homework together? I know you have been struggling with your Physics class lately, and I could give you some of my notes. Let's face it, your note-taking sucks."

Eren felt guilty has hell, "I would but… uhhhh… I actually have a date tonight."

"Ehhhh?", Armin's eyes went wide. He was thankful for this small distraction as well as he was genuinely surprised that Eren was actually able to get a date. He was happy for him none the less. "And you waited until now to tell me this?!"

"Don't look so surprised!" Eren chuckled as he lightheartedly punched Armin in the shoulder.

Armin then threw a myriad of questions at him, "What's her name?! What does she look like?! Where did you two meet?!"

Eren scratched the back of his head, "Her name is Annie. She has really pretty blonde hair, blue eyes, and this cute little nose. We met at a book shop not too far from University and we're planning on meeting at the arcade after class".

Armin grinned one of his big, adorable grins. "Good luck tonight, man, you're gonna need it".

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Eren said, mockingly offended.

Armin shrugged, "You haven't exactly had the best of luck in the past, you know."

That was certainly the understatement of the year. Every time Eren found someone he was sincerely interested in, things just got weird or ended very, very badly. Like one time he dated this girl, Hitch, back in high school and she ended up ditching him in the middle of the night and practically stole all of his personal savings.

They made it to their class with less than a minute to spare. It was World History 201 taught by a professor named Shadis. Armin and Eren took their seats in the front row, to Eren's dismay. He hated being this close to the teacher but he knew his friend sometimes had a hard timeseeing and Eren didn't want to leave him all alone up in the front. Armin winked at him and gave him two thumbs up, "It'll be fine, trust me."

Eren sighed and put his chin on his desk. He just really hoped this one will turn out okay.


	2. Chapter 2

Back at the Café, Levi had finished his coffee, or, what was left of it anyway, and both he and Erwin got up to leave. They had a lot to do today, and hardly any time to loiter around a coffee shop. "That damn brat… Why do our uniforms have to be white again?" Levi grumbled under his breath, still trying to scrub the coffee stain off the front of his jacket. Finally, after 45 minutes of insistence scrubbing, he officially had given up trying to get it all out.

Erwin smirked, "quit worrying about it. You might have blood all over it by the end of the night anyway."

Levi scowled but his thoughts turned away from the stain when Erwin's phone rang. Levi's eyes darkened, one of the younger investigators assigned to this area of the city must have found another body. That's the only reason someone would call Erwin while he was working.

Erwin hung up after a quick conversation, "A few blocks south of where they found the college student, another body was found, this time a young girl, maybe around sixteen or seventeen."

"Where her eyes gouged out as well..?" Levi asked, even though he already knew the answer.

Erwin nodded. Though it hadn't been released to the general public, the string of murders that had been occurring over the past few months all had something in common. Whatever ghoul that had been preying in this ward would always take both of the eyes. They still didn't know whether it occurred before or after the death of the victim and hardly anything had been found out about the attacker, other than the fact that it was a ghoul. Because of a lack of progress in the investigation, the Main Office decided to send in two of their top investigators.

Erwin Smith and Levi Ackerman have been working together for quite a long time, about ten years now, since Levi was eighteen and Erwin was twenty-five. Both have ascended in rank since then but their partnership had continued. Levi was now a Rank One Investigator and Erwin had risen to the title of Special Class Investigator.

A half an hour later, Levi and Erwin were standing over the body of the girl, a few blocks away from Café Maria. As expected her eyes were gone and large portions of her body were gone from where the ghoul had taken their fill.

"Absolutely disgusting…" Levi muttered as he placed the white cloth covering the victim back over her. "Were you able to find any kagune secretions or anything else the ghoul left behind?" Levi asked one of the younger investigators sent to pre-examine the scene and block it off from the public.

He shook his head, "no the area is clean, nothing, not even a hair."

"And what about the witnesses who found the victim?", Erwin asked.

"They were college students who were taking a short cut to class.", the investigator replied. "None of them saw anything other than the body. I don't think this murder occurred within the past few hours though. It probably happened sometime last night around 9 or 10 pm so the ghoul who did this is long gone by now."

Erwin strode over to Levi who was busy lighting a cigarette, "Let's see if anyone who lives in the surrounding neighborhoods heard or saw anything." It was doubtful but it was protocol.

Levi nodded as he blew out a puff of smoke. He turns his attention to the young investigator, "We'll leave the victim to you. Call us if you find anything that mind help in finding out who the bastard is, no matter how small."

The investigator saluted by crossing his right arm over his mid-section, the customary salute for the CCG, "sir!"

Levi tossed his quinque over his shoulder and turned his attention back to Erwin. "I want to find the one who did this by the end of the month."

"That's a bit of a stretch, even for you." Erwin smirked.

"I don't care."

"I swear you'll be the death of me one of these days," Erwin chuckled.

"That's the dream," Levi turned and began making his way to the closest neighborhood. "I'll take the ones to the south, I'll meet you back here in an hour. Call if you find out anything." At that, both of the detectives made their separate ways and began their investigation.


	3. Chapter 3

After classes were over, Eren made a quick stop at his apartment to change into some clean clothes before meeting Annie. He was excited, but nervous at the same time and it took all of his willpower to calm his quaking heartbeat. He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror; the tips of his hair were still damp from the shower.

He took a deep breath, "Let's do this…" Honestly there was a nagging feeling in his gut, but he brushed it off as mere nerves. He locked the door of his apartment and made his way to the arcade stationed a few blocks away. He didn't even have to wait for very long in front of the building before Annie showed up. Eren smiled at her, that badgering feeling still raging in the pit of his stomach. He forced himself to ignore it.

"Hey, how was your day?" Eren asked.

Annie shrugged her shoulders, "It went okay. Work was tiring but I somehow made it through."

Eren nudged her shoulder, "I didn't know you had a job. Where do you work?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Annie said teasingly with a slight smile.

Eren laughed, though somewhat confused at the reply. He let it go though and took Annie's hand in his. His cheeks were lobster red and you could tell by the look on his face he was quite nervous.

"Hey, relax," Annie squeezed his hand and winked, "I promise I won't bite."

He nodded and let out a shaky breath, "so, where do you want to start?" he asked, looking around the arcade area. To their left was the entrance to the laser tag room and to their right was where all the arcade games were.

Annie led him to their left, to laser tag of course.

Eren grinned and followed her in, the black-light making the Death Star on his _Star Wars _T-shirt glow bright. For a moment there he second guessed his choice of clothing but it was too late now and seeing the back of Annie's shirt made him breathe a sigh of relief. On the back of hers in glowing white letters read:

_Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock_

Eren smiled, believing that his luck had finally changed for the better.

After many hours of laser tag, basketball, _Donkey Kong_, _Space Invaders_, and one huge giant, red dinosaur stuffed animal later, Annie and Eren walked hand-in-hand out of the arcade. At this point, it was about 9 o'clock at night and the sun had long since set below the horizon. The city was lit with life as the many restaurants, late-night karaoke bars, and shopping malls were bustling with the thousands of people who lived in the city.

The only downside was the blistering cold, which was evident from the puffs of steam emanating from the Eren and Annie's mouths as they talked.

"I had a lot of fun tonight," Eren said with a blush as they crossed one of the many busy streets. "Do you think we could… uhhh… Do it again sometime?"

Annie turned her head towards Eren and nodded, "Maybe next time we could go see that new video game store that just opened."

Eren grinned, "Totally." He then paused in front of a small convenience store, where, normally, they would part ways to go home since they live on opposite sides of the city. Eren thought of Mylius though, the boy who was just found murdered, and without thinking he asked, "Want me to walk you home?"

"You would do that?" She asked him.

Eren nodded at her and smiled, "Of course I would. The streets have been dangerous lately and I want to make sure you get home okay. Besides," he leaned down to kiss the top of her hand, "If I didn't, what kind of gentleman would I be?"

She chuckled softly and kissed his cheek. "Thank you. What about you though?."

Eren laughed, "Me? I'll be okay. I'm strong."

Annie laughed and playfully punched his shoulder, in which Eren accidentally muttered the word "ow."

"Sure you are." she replied with the smile.

They walked for a little while longer, making small talk here and there, as Annie led Eren into one of the central neighborhoods. They passed through an alley, where a man was busily making a phone call. It was dark so neither Annie nor Eren could see him very well and he was talking in a rather hushed tone. Although it was a little weird, they barely paid him much attention to him and continued on.

Annie directed Eren up to one of the smaller houses lining the street and both of them went up the steps onto the porch. Annie pulled out her keys and unlocked the front door, "would you like to come inside? I could make you some coffee if you want."

Eren hesitated, the nagging feeling hit him with full force once again, "I probably shouldn't. My sister is probably waiting for me to get home."

She turned back toward him, "Are you sure?" Annie leaned in close to him and smirked, "I make one mean cup of coffee." She clutched the front of his collar, "Besides, if it gets too late you could always just spend the night."

Eren scratched the back of his head, blushing like crazy, "What the hell. Why not?" Annie dragged him into the house and Eren took a seat at the kitchen table, a bit edgy. What was up with him today?

He glanced around the tidy living space. There wasn't much along the walls, no personal photos or paintings and it was sparsely furnished, but it was cozy. He practically chided himself for being so worried.

"How do you like your coffee?" Annie asked as she slowly poured hot water over a filter full of coffee beans.

"Black, please," Eren replied, "I've never liked any cream or sugar in my coffee."

Annie set the freshly-made cup of coffee in front of him and then poured another one for herself. "Good," she said with a slight smirk while sitting down at the table across from Eren, "Neither have I."

"Oh really?" Eren inquired, laughing a bit. "I guess that's one thing we have in common. It's strange though, you seem like the type of girl who likes sweets."

Annie took a sip of her coffee and laughed, "Not at all. What makes you think that?"

Eren shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, just a feeling I guess, but looks like I'm wrong this time." He gulped down the last of his drink. Damn she could make a good cup of coffee.

After Annie finished hers, she took both of their cups to the sink, "So what do you think?"

Eren was confused for a moment, his cheeks going bright red, "about what?"

She flung a bit of water at him, noting his reaction and laughing, "The coffee, you jerk. My mother taught me how to make it when I was a little kid."

"Oh!" Eren stood up a bit embarrassed. "It was really good. Hell, I wish I could make coffee that good. Maybe you could teach me sometime."

Annie strode close to Eren, barely an inch between their bodies. It was the closest they had been all night, "Maybe..."

Being as short as she was, Annie had to stand on the tip of her toes to be able to reach Eren's lips.

Eren was caught by surprise by the sudden kiss. His thoughts were racing and his entire body felt hot. He couldn't move, he was frozen as they kissed. It was then a sharp pain on his lips dragged him out of his daze. He and Annie separated and he breathed heavily as he tried to wrap his mind around what happened. He brought his fingers to his lips, there was blood.

"You bit me…" it barely came out as a whisper. He looked at Annie as she licked her lips.

"Now this is a surprise," she said mostly to herself, "I guess I do like the taste of a sweet meal." Annie paused for a moment. She thought his scent was off but she had ignored it and now she could taste it clearly in his blood. She grabbed the collar of Eren's shirt and smashed him against the wall, trapping him there intensely enough to leave a fair sized crack in the plaster, "Who the hell are you?" Her voice cut at Eren like a finely sharpened knife.

"I-I don't know… what you're talking about!", Eren's head had been hit pretty hard against the wall and he could feel the warmth of blood trailing down his neck. He was completely at a loss. One moment they were kissing and now he was almost at the point of passing out from how hard Annie shoved him against the wall. _What the hell was going on?!_

She leaned in real close to him, revealing her kakugan, the ghoul's eyes. The entirety of both of her eyes were black, except for the iris, which was a deep shade of blood red, "You're starting to piss me off. Quit feigning ignorance," She pierced him right through the stomach with her hand like a hot knife through butter, "you're not human, your scent is wrong."

Eren cried out and he could taste blood in his mouth. He was dizzy and he was losing a lot of blood. _A ghoul?! How in bloody hell was this happening?!_

Annie brought her blood soaked hand to her mouth and tasted his blood again. "You taste neither like a ghoul nor a human but some sick combination of both."

Eren looked at Annie through extremely terrified eyes, blood dripping out of his stomach and mouth, "You… are a ghoul…?" The words passed through his lips, barely a whisper.

Annie smirked, but the emotion didn't reach her red and black eyes. She leaned in close to him again, enunciating every word, "I'm surprised it took you this long to figure it out." At that moment, Annie began to release her kagune, an ukaku type that sprouted from her shoulder blades, "Do you know what the tastiest part of the human body is?" She slowly moved her kagune, which looked like thin, crystalized spider legs, barely a centimeter away from Eren's right eye.

Eren wanted to close his eyes but his gaze was locked on Annie. He couldn't scream, pain wracked his entire body and all he could do was wait for her to pluck out his own two eyes.

It was then he heard a ringtone from a cell.

Annie let go of Eren and he fell to the floor, "Damn it…What do you want now…?" Annie flipped open her cell to see the caller ID, "Tch…" she answered it without saying hello. "Reiner, I'm a little busy at the moment, what do you want?"

_"__I don't give a shit what you are doing right now, we have to leave. It's the Doves. I think they've caught onto our trail."_

Annie's face darkened, she remembered seeing someone as her and Eren were walking towards the house. She didn't give it much thought before but now she wished she had, "Shit. Did they spot you? Where are you and Bertholdt now?"

_"__No, I don't think they've spotted us and we're a few blocks away. Annie, get your mask on and get out of there now. You know where to meet us."_ After that, Reiner immediately hung up the phone.

There was a loud rasp on the door, but Annie did not make a move to answer it. Instead she gazed at Eren, "Looks like you won't be my snack today after all" She slipped on her mask, which she had hanging on the wall close by. "By the looks of it you're already dead. Bye-bye, Jeager." It was the last thing she said before she disappeared through the back door.

Eren was abandoned there, bloody and broken, with his back against the wall and his insides all but hanging out of him. In retrospect he should have been dead by now, with the amount of blood that he had lost, but he wasn't, which made the pain he was feeling that much more penetrating. He gathered the strength to stand to his feet to try to get help but his knees were shaking beneath him and he had to use the wall for balance.

He heard someone ramming against the locked door, trying to bust it open, but it hardly registered within his brain.

Eren took a step forward, blood spilling out of his abdomen. The throbbing pain was too much though and after a moment he lost his balance. Someone caught him though, and when Eren looked up to see who it was, he saw the last person he expected to see, his mother. She was there holding him up in the flesh, smiling with her beautiful smile and her auburn hair pulled into a side pony tail. His mother sat down with Eren and laid him in her lap, cupping his cheek with the palm of her hand. He could feel her hand like she was truly there in front of him, solid, warm, and alive. Eren looked into her eyes and what he saw was not sea-green colour that he was used to seeing from the photos of her. Her eyes were black and the irises a dark, deep red; the eyes of a ghoul. It didn't frighten him though, because with those eyes she gazed at with all the love a mother could muster. She dropped her head down to him and whispered into his ear:

_It's time for you to wake up, my son._

His vision went dark, and he felt a hot surge through his body. It wasn't painfully hot though, it almost felt…nice… almost peaceful. He open his eyes again to see his mother's smile once again. She said something to him, but he couldn't hear her voice.

Suddenly, his mother's image vanished and someone else took her place. He could barely make out the face of the stranger but he remembered those eyes, from somewhere, though he couldn't quite remember. They were a beautiful shade of blue-grey that had Eren captivated. _Oh yeah… It's the guy from the coffee shop. Why is he here…? _He then realized he was shouting something at Eren. He couldn't make out what it was though; everything around him had gone completely silent. He noticed though, that the stranger's eyes were filled with anger, worry, and most noticeably, fear. Eren didn't have the strength to respond him and he let his eyelids droop shut, this time for good.


	4. Chapter 4

A few hours earlier, Levi dug his phone out of his pocket when he felt it vibrate, "Erwin, it's all clear here. There's no sign of any ghouls." Hours earlier he and Erwin were going from house to house, asking if any of the residences had seen or heard something around the time of the murders. They got a few accounts but nothing concrete enough to work off of so when the sun went down, Erwin got the idea to split up and patrol the area around the crime scene. It's been about four hours now and the night has been silent so far.

_"__Nothing here either," _Erwin replied. _"I don't think the ghoul will show its face so close after it's fed. It's most likely in hiding right now."_

Levi grunted in response and lit a cigarette, "I don't feel comfortable leaving without someone on guard around here. Who knows when they'll attack next. Call Hanji and see if she has any men available."

_"__Will do."_ At that, Erwin hung up the phone.

Levi was stuffed his phone back into his coat pocket, and blew out a puff of smoke. He leaned up against one of the adjacent buildings looked up into the sky. Like always the lights of the city completely erased any hope of seeing any stars. It was a quiet night in early December so it was more than a bit chilly. Thankfully he had the white coat given to him by the CCG to protect him from the cold, although it was still covered in coffee. Levi muttered something about bleaching it when he got home but the sound of laughter drew him out of his thoughts. He looked around for the source when he spotted a couple of teenagers walking towards him, no, towards the area of houses that lined the street. He did his best to remain inconspicuous by pulling out his phone again, pretending to answer a call as the two teens walked by. He figured it would be less noticeable for him to hide in plain sight than to quickly dive for cover, the two teens had probably already spotted him anyway. He continued to carry out his fake conversation as they walked by him. The first, he noticed, was a short, blonde girl with most of her hair pulled into a pony tail. The boy she was with had auburn hair and really pretty eyes, but his smile was what really caught Levi's attention, it was beautiful and a little familiar.

_Damn it, _he thought to himself, _it's that kid that spilled coffee all over me. _Levi leaned back into the wall, hoping the shadows covered him well enough. It would be a pain in the ass if he recognized Levi all the way out here.

As he studied the two, something felt off. Levi knew it may be nothing but Erwin had always told him to listen to his gut instinct and right now it told him something was wrong, very wrong.

The girl. He remembered some of the residences that they had questioned mentioned seeing a short, feminine form and blonde hair around the time the victims were killed. It was all incredibly vague though and that description could fit anyone. Levi was overly cautious though, he always had been. Besides, he didn't like the look that the girl had in her eyes.

Once they had disappeared inside the house, Levi moved from his place in the shadows. He creeped up onto the front porch of the one-story building, making sure not to make any noise, and gripped the handle of his quinque tightly. He could hear laughter coming from inside, and that almost erased any fears that he had. Almost, but not quite.

He didn't want to leave until he certain that the girl wasn't who they were searching for and he didn't have to wait long until he heard a scream come from inside.

Levi went into action instantaneously. He pounded against the door. It was locked. "Shit…" he muttered not for the first time that day. He stepped back and rammed himself against the door, but the door was a stubborn one. Levi didn't want to release his quinque yet but it was his only option. He pressed the button on the brief case and his weapon emerged. It was a set of dual, twin blades that were made from an ukaku kagune. He swung the blades in a downward arc, completely smashing the door open.

He entered into the main hall of the house. The first thing he noticed was the darkness. All the lights were off and it was nearly a new moon so no light streamed through the windows. He ran through the living room. Nothing. The sun room. Empty. When he finally made his way into the kitchen, he cursed at what he saw. There was blood everywhere, splattered on all the walls and furniture. And the beaten and bloodied body of the brown haired boy was lying on the floor on his stomach. It seemed nearly impossible that he could still be alive. Levi rushed to the boy's side, turning him over onto his back. What Levi saw then nearly made him throw up. The boy's entire abdomen was completely ripped out. Levi dug his phone out of his pocket, immediately dialing 911, while simultaneously keeping pressure on the wound. He knew he was probably already too late though. The boy's pulse was too slow for Levi to find.

While waiting for the ambulance, Levi was trying the best he could to stop the flow of blood. During this, if he would have stopped long enough to look closely at the boy's half-opened eyes, which at the time he couldn't bring himself to do, Levi would have seen that while his right eye was a beautiful, sea green colour, his left was black save for a dark, red iris. The darkness is what saved Eren's life that night. If Levi would have seen his eye, he most likely would have killed the boy on the spot.


End file.
